A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 69

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers

UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK

1. (a)  1066- The year of the Norman-French conquest of England.

   (b)The Germanic tribes from Europe who overran England in the 5th century, after the Roman withdrawal, brought with them the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, language, which is the basis of Modern English. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

  (c) The Germanic tribes brought also a specific poetic tradition, the formal character of which remained surprisingly constant until the termination of their rule by the Norman-French invaders six centuries later.

(d) The year 1066 is epoch- making in the history of England and English.

(A) only (a) and (b) are correct.

(B) only (d) is correct.

(C) (d) is correct and (a), (b), and (c) are the correct explanation of it.

(D) (a) and (c) are false.

2. Match the following:

I. “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer”	a. English history from the 10th to the 12th century
II. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle	b. Old English epic poem.
III. “Dream of the Rood.”	c. A Christian poem by Cynewulf and his school
IV. Beowulf	d. Old English poems on the sadness of the human lot

      (I) (II) (III) (IV)

(A) (d) (a) (c) (b)

(B) (d) (b) (d) (a)

(C) (b) (a) (c) (d) Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(D) (a) (c) (d) (b)

3. The original Latin work of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People is

 (A)  Historica Ecclesiastica Gentes Anglorium

(B) Historica Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorium

(C)  Historica Ecclesiastica Gentes Anglorium

(D)  Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum

4. The following phrases from Shakespeare have become the titles of famous works. Identify the correctly matched group.

(I) Pale Fire	(a) Thomas Hardy
(II) The Sound and the Fury	(b) Somerset Maugham
(III) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead	(c) William Faulkner
(IV) Under the Greenwood Tree	(d) Tom Stoppard
(V) Of Cakes and Ale	(e) Vladimir Nabokov

     (I) (II) (III) (IV) (V)

(A) (e) (d) (c) (a) (b)

(B) (d) (e) (b) (c) (a)

(C) (e) (c) (d) (a) (b)

(D) (c) (d) (b) (e) (a)

4. Match the following:

I. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	a.  secular vision poem of   semiallegorical nature
II. The Parliament of Fowls	b. impassioned work in the form of dream visions Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)
III. The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman	c. a romance, or tale, of knightly adventure and love
IV. Le morte d'Arthur	d. Arthurian romance

(I) (II) (III) (IV) (A) (d) (b) (c) (a) (B) (d) (a) (b) (c) (C) (b) (c) (d) (a) (D) (c) (a) (b) (d)

5. Which of the elegies, dedication and their authors perfectly match?

Elegy                            Author               Dedication

Elegy Written on a country Churchyard - T. Gray (elegy on Edward King)

Lycidas             - Shelley     (elegy on common man)        

Adonais             -   Milton    ( elegy on John Keats)

In Memoriam     -  Tennyson     ( elegy on Arther Henry Hallam)

Thyrsis             -  Arnold        (elegy on Arthur Hugh  Clough)

A. ONLY I IS CORRECT

B. ONLY I & II ARE CORRECT

C. ONLY IV IS CORRECT Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

D. ONLY III AND IV IS CORRECT

6. Epic Name one Indian and one Western epic: A to Z (Objective Questions) The greatest and sublime form of poetry is epic. It is a long poem, divided into several books, celebrating the life, heroic deeds and achievements of a national hero whether historical or legendary. / An epic is a long narrative poem. Usually it deals with heroic feats, wars and national causes. The epic depicts the age consciousness and the dialogism.

Ramayana by Rwishi Balmiki & Iliad & Odyssey by Homer.

  7. Two attempts of writing English epics after ‘Paradise Lost’. A to Z (Objective Questions)

The Rape of the Lock     - Alexander Pope; Tom Jones      - Fielding

(The first one is mock heroic poem while the next one is a novel, a comic epic)

 8. ‘Pindaric Ode’ in English:This form of poetry is usually attributed to Cowley, whose Pinderique Odes were published in 1656.

 The Pindaric Odes are written on the model of the odes written by Pindar, the great Greek poet. They are choric in character and designed to be sung by a troupe of dancer in churches or Public halls.

9.  Prose Satires:  Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (a satire on mankind).

Jonson’s Volpone (a satire on cleverness and covetousness). A to Z (Objective Questions)

10. Lake poets: William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, Robert Southey.They are called Lake poets because they all lived in the Lake district of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, reviewed by Francis Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review they shared their common habitation but no such poetic ideology. However, they are considered part of the Romantic Movement. Dorothy Wordsworth, Charles Lloyd, Hartley Coleridge, John Wilson, and Thomas De Quincey are other poets of this group.

11. ‘Dark comedy’: All’s well that ends well, Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure are known as dark comedies.

       Dark comedy are those which are tragic-comic in tone and form; plays in which laughter, grief, wretchedness and despair are intermingled.

12. Which one of the following plays does not use the device of “the play within the play”?Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(A) Hamlet

(B) Women Beware Women

(C) The Spanish Tragedy

(D) A Midsummer Nights’ Dream

13. Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the Other labelled as Reason (R) :

Assertion (A) : In the Absurd plays of Pinter and Beckett, lack of communication seems to be a

predominant theme.

Reason (R) : Existentialist philosophy had a tremendous influence on the dramatists of the period, nihilism and meaninglessness of life taking a front seat.

In the context of the above statements, which one of the following is correct.

(A) Both (A) and (R) are true and(R) is the correct explanation of (A).

(B) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

(C) (A) is true but (R) is false.

(D) (A) is false but (R) is true.Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

14. Which of the following observations are true about Beatrice Culleton’s April Raintree ?

I. It is a fictional account of the lives of two met is sisters growing up in Winnipeg.

II. April has a darker complexion and identifies herself with Metis population.

III. The two sisters have been removed from their parents’ home and placed with a series of foster families. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

IV. Cheryl has a lighter complexion and identifies herself with white population.

(A) I and III are correct.

(B) I and II are correct.Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(C) II and III are correct.

(D) III and IV are correct.

15. Conventional scholarship dates ‘Early Modern English’ as beginning around

(A) 450

(B) 1066

(C) 1500

(D) 1800

16. “She dwells with beauty – Beauty that must die”, – wrote Keats in one of his odes, referring to

(A) Indolence (B) Autumn

(C) Melancholy (D) Psyche

17. Kafka’s Trial has all the following characteristics except :

(A) Vivid yet surreal

(B) Dystopian

(C) The use of historical details ofsetting

(D) The depiction of totalitarian society

18. Match the following lists: Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

List – I(Phrases from poems)          List – II(Titles ofpoems)

I. “Sound of stick upon the floor” 1. “Byzantium”

II. “Hade’s bobbinbound in mummy cloth” 2. “Sailing to Byzantium”

III. “With beauty like a tightenedbow” 3. “Coole andBallylee,1931”

IV. “A tattered coat upon a stick” 4. “No Second Troy”

The right combination according to the code is :

      I II III IV

(A) 4 1 3 2

(B) 3 2 1 4

(C) 4 3 2 1

(D) 3 1 4 2

19. Given below are the two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and

the other labelled as Reason (R). Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

Assertion (A) : The literature of the Jacobean Age is dominated by works revealing symptoms of melodrama and sensationalism.

Reason (R) : The Jacobean Age is generally ruled by the spirit of decadence.

In the context of the two statements which one of the following is correct.

(A) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R)is the correct explanation of (A).

(B) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

(C) (A) is true but (R) is false.

(D) (A) is false but (R) is true.Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

20. Which of the following statements best describes the term ‘deconstruction’ ?

(A) It seeks to expose the problematic nature of ‘centered’ discourses.

(B) It advocates ‘subjective’ or ‘free’ interpretation.

(C) It emphasizes the importance of historical context.

(D) It is a method of critical analysis. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

 Ardhendu De

     21. Match the following author – book pair:

Author	Book
I John Ruskin	a  Annus Mirabilis
II Dryden	B  Frankenstein
III Mary Shelly	c  Hudibras
IV Samuel Butler	d  Modern painters
V   Samuel Butler	e  Erewhon

       (I) (II) (III) (IV) (V)

(A) (d)  (b)  (c)  (a)  (e)

(B)  (d)  (a)  (b)  (c) (e)

(C)  (b)  (c)  (d)  (a) (e)

(D) (c)  (a)  (b)   (d) (e)

22.  Which of the following plays of Shakespeare is not known as dark comedy?

 A. All well that Ends well

B. Troilus and Cressida

C. As You like It

D.  Measure for Measure     Shakespeare.

** Dark comedy is called so as they are preoccupied with darker side of human experience. They contain much discussion of serious moral and intellectual problems.**

    23. Chronological order of the four manuscripts in which the surviving Old English poetry is preserved:

A.Beowulf MS  - Exeter Book  - Vercelli Book- Junius MS

B.Vercelli Book- Junius MS- Beowulf MS  - Exeter Book

C.Beowulf MS  -- Vercelli Book- Junius MS -Exeter Book 

D.Beowulf MS  -Junius MS- Exeter Book  - Vercelli Book

     (Beowulf MS (dated 1000); Junius MS (containing Caedmon poems, dated 1655);     Exeter Book (dated 1050);   Vercelli Book (containing Cynewulf poems dated 1560))

      24. Match the following works with the authors’ name.

     Works                                                         Authors

a. Essay on Milton    -                   I. Charles Lamb

b. Essay on Criticism  -                  II. Pope

c. Essay In Criticism  -                  III.T. S. Eliot

d. Essays of Elia    -                      IV. Macaulay

e. Essays of Ancient & Modern -     V. Mathew Arnold

       (I) (II) (III) (IV) (V)

(A)  (d)  (b)  (e)  (a)  (c)

(B)  (d)  (a)  (b)  (c) (e)

(C)  (b)  (c)  (d)  (a) (e)

(D)  (c)  (a)  (b)   (d) (e)

25. Choose the right chronological order of the female sovereign of England .

A. Queen Victoria- Mary -Elizabeth I -Anne -Elizabeth II

B.  Mary -Elizabeth I -Anne -Queen Victoria-Elizabeth II

C. Mary -Elizabeth I- Queen Victoria- Anne -Elizabeth II

D. Elizabeth I- Queen Victoria- Anne -Elizabeth II- Mary

(  Mary (1553-58)-Elizabeth I (1558-1603)-Anne (1702-14)-Queen Victoria (1837-1901)-Elizabeth II (1952-STILL DATE)

26. Which of the following is not a Poet Laureate of England?

a. John Dryden

b. Thomas Shadwell

c. Colley Cibber

d. William Whitehead

e. S. T. Coleridge

 (John Dryden 1668-1689-Thomas Shadwell 1689-1692-Nahum Tate 1692-1715 -Nicholas Rowe 1715-1718 -Laurence Eusden 1718-1730 -Colley Cibber 1730-1757-William Whitehead 1757-1785-Thomas Warton 1785-1790 -Henry James Pye 1790--1813 -Robert Southey 1813-1843 -William Wordsworth 1843-1850 -Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1850-1892 -Alfred Austin 1896-1913 -Robert Bridges 1913-1930 -John Masefield 1930-1967 -C. Day Lewis 1968-1972 --Sir John Betjeman 1972-1984 -Ted Hughes 1984-1998 -Andrew Motion 1999- 2009-Carol Ann Duffy 2009- until now.)

  

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